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27 April 2009

9 of coins

Nine of Coins: Truth

This is one of those times where one card, with one word, can send you writing and thinking for days.

One meaning I’ve read for the card is fulfillment of a project, or a phase in life, with the sense of a successful completion of that phase or project. But here is another reason why I so like “Magical Tarot Mystical Tao” by Diane Morgan…it imbues every card with the profound, not only the Major Arcana.

Her interpretation for this card is simply, and profoundly, “Truth”.

There is so much that can be said about Truth…it is the basis of the entire study of philosophy and the human endeavor THAT entails.

Of all the many aspects of truth, what captures my attention today is the idea of each person recognizing their own personal TRUTH.

There are as many truths as there are people and perceptions.

Fundamentalist religion will often deny it, even wail and rail against it. But the deep knowing of Truth individually, personally, is a deep and universal TRUTH if you ask me.

There is a lyric from a Madonna song that has always captured my attention and rung true…thoroughly valid…to me. “Truth is where you find it”. You can learn, and find life-changing truth anywhere. Even in the lyrics of pop music. What is true for one person, may not be expressed the same for another.

Here we have one of the great navel-gazing paradoxes. Which part of this is most true…well, that is for you to decide:

Truth is personal and individual - truth isn’t necessarily the same for each person. No one person, institution, doctrine, dogma, religion or philosophy has all the answers for everyone. There is no monopoly on Truth

On the other hand, there are universal truths…things that are part of the very fabric of existance, at the heart, the same for everyone. Think of compassion, kindness, honesty, integrity…ideas like that.

It seems like a paradox: here is how I understand it. You might see it differently, but that is the nature of life and truth, at least here on three dimensional Earth…

Let’s look again to popular media. Most people don’t have a knee jerk, reflexive bias for or against movies…you might like it, you might not, but there is nothing inherently good or evil about them…just better and worse ones according to your taste or critical commentary.

Yet again, we find something profound and thought -provoking in a movie that most people wouldn’t necessarily elevate to “art”…. “Enemy Mine”. I like the scene where the Alien pilot is speaking of his religion, while the Earth pilot sarcastically quotes Mickey Mouse. Nonplussed, the wise alien points out that “Truth is Truth”.

Indeed. Truth is everywhere, anywhere. It is where you find it - music, movies, sacred writings, or the Saturday Evening Post. It doesn’t matter. If it rings true to the essence of your being, it is true.

So can there be universal truth? Of course. Universal Truth has many faces. It isn’t the sole purvue of religion or Tarot, or some gifted psychic or anointed priest. The Truth that you recognize with your very soul in the most mundane of places is a part of that Universal Truth. It is Universal Truth showing itself to you in a form that you can see, and recognize and accept. For some people, Truth must come in the form of dogmatic, ritualized religion for them to accept it. For others, a song or movie does just fine. Truth is Truth…where ever you find it. Truth has many faces, so what may be true for you, may not be true for another, but both spring from the same well of Universal Truth. Branches on a tree are different shapes and sizes, but in the end, are all part of the same tree. And so it is with the Truths we encounter: big and small, religious and secular, exotic and ubiquitous.